If the economy has you thinking about reinventing yourself, here's the handbook you need to make a professional transition as painless  and successful  as possible.

Heidi Waterfield, 44, of San Francisco, knew something had to change last fall, when her hours were reduced at first one and then another of the three part-time office jobs she juggles so that she and her professor husband can make ends meet. "We've already cut back on expenses and skipped vacations; I'm not sure how much tighter things can get," says Waterfield, who left a full-time teaching job when her daughter was born nine years ago. "I knew I had to change gears and reach my full income potential again  but how?"

With 6.5 million jobs lost since December 2007 (as of press time), Waterfield isn't the only one feeling as if shifting career paths might make sense. "If you thought you'd stay in your current job until retirement, think again," says Pamela Mitchell, founder of The Reinvention Institute, a company that offers coaching and courses to those looking for new career paths. "Your ability to change directions is your new job security. Even if you haven't felt the recession's impact yet, the more proactive you are, the better protected you'll be if the other shoe drops."

Choosing a new path won't be easy. Whether you're hoping to transfer to a new field, want to start your own business, or are just contemplating what move you might make in the future, know that "any major change usually takes one to three years to complete, and may require a step backward financially, at least initially," says Laura Berman Fortgang, a life coach and author of Now What? 90 Days to a New Life Direction. To help you make the great leap and land softly, we talked to experts and women who have "been there, done that." Here, your game plan:

Step 1: Nail Down Your Dream
Julie Walker, 52, of Pismo Beach, CA, had worked in real estate for over 18 years when she lost her job in 2007. "I spent four months job hunting in my industry and didn't get a single call," recalls Walker. "I felt like I was spinning with no direction at all."

So when she read about Mitchell's company in an article, she thought it would help her identify what to do next; the $550 price tag for a six-week-long class, however, concerned her. Luckily, her sister swept in and signed Walker up as a birthday gift. In the class, Walker took a serious look at what strengths she could offer prospective employers or clients. After evaluating her professional skills ("people person, detail-oriented, creative") and identifying the most enjoyable parts of her previous jobs, Walker realized that she'd always loved putting together work events, "from parties for clients to planning weddings for my bosses' children," she explains. "I didn't even know how much I loved it until my classmates said, 'Julie, when you talk about event planning, we can hear the smile in your voice.'" This process helped Walker zero in on her next career path  one that had been hiding in plain sight.

Tactics to Try

Name your big-picture goal, however unformed (e.g., "working with kids"), if your thinking about your next job feels vague. Then drill down: Kids of what age? Do you want to care for them, teach them, or offer another service? Also ask yourself, What everyday activity or work task do I most look forward to? Then visit humanmetrics.com and take the Jung Typology Test and click on the Jung Career Indicator on your results page, or take the Small Business Entrepreneur Profiler test to find out what kinds of careers best suit your personality, suggests Kathryn Sollmann, managing partner and cofounder of the Women@Work Network (womenatworknetwork.com), a networking and recruiting firm.

Start a file of job descriptions that sound interesting so you can gain insight onto different positions, suggests Sollmann. Check it regularly as you add to it.

See how stable the field is financially. Once you've identified an area you're interested in exploring further, Google the industry's name plus "association" to find trade groups and other online hubs where you can learn more about its employment outlook. Career counseling services (often available at your alma mater) can also help.

Consider whether you could be paid for what you are now doing for free. Heidi Waterfield, the former teacher looking to return to the workplace, knew that education was her passion, but was stymied for a while by not knowing how to turn that into a profitable business idea, since she wasn't ready to return to full-time teaching. She knew firsthand that parents in her area struggled to have their children placed in the right public or private schools, because San Francisco uses a highly competitive lottery system. "When I was going through the process with my daughter, I realized that when I walk into a school, thanks to my professional background, I'm able to evaluate it in a way most people can't, and I didn't want that knowledge to go to waste," Waterfield explains. She started offering advice to friends, "just informally, while we were chatting at our kids' gymnastics class  and pretty soon someone said, 'You know, people would pay for this kind of expertise.'" The idea for an educational consulting business  offering a full range of school-placement, curriculum-consulting, and tutoring services  was born. "If moms at your kid's school are willing to pay you to do something, chances are other moms will, too," says Nell Merlino, CEO of the nonprofit Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence. "That's called identifying a problem and finding a marketable solution." Waterfield's business is growing steadily, providing a great model of putting what one already knows to good use.

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